Marchant: Players haven't tuned out Carlyle

PITTSBURGH -- The general manager's patience has about reached its end. The exasperated coach is about to take some drastic measures. And the besiged players appear to be a collection of individuals that hardly resemble a team.

Such is the state of the Ducks after a 5-2 loss in Pittsburgh that capped a winless four-game road trip in which they scratched out one measly point and have settled into the bottom floor of the Western Conference.

Speculation of Randy Carlyle's job status is beginning to percolate but Ducks general manager Bob Murray last week quashed any notion that he plans to fire the franchise's all-time winningest coach.

Center Todd Marchant said that despite a stretch that's seen them lose 10 of their last 13 games, the players haven't tuned out Carlyle. When asked if the group is still listening to him, Marchant said, "Oh yeah. Absolutely."

"I've been in situations like this before and that seems to be a common question," Marchant added. "Are people not listening to the coach? I don't see that at all. I've never seen that at all. I've never seen where players don't listen to the coach.

"For whatever reason, things just don't work out the way you want them to. They don't work out the way you draw them up."

Carlyle visibly expressed his frustration following the loss to the Penguins. Marchant said the coach's reaction is understandable.

"He's as frustrated as anybody," he said. "The difference is we can go out and do something about it and he can't. Coaching staffs can only do so much. They can only give you so much information. They can only diagram things so many times.

"It's the players that ultimately have to go out and perform. That's our job. Bottom line, you've got to go out and perform."

The Ducks conducted one-on-one meetings Sunday, something that Carlyle does with each player about three or four times a year.

"I can guarantee you, every player going into it doesn't want to be in that room for any longer than the 10 or 15 minutes that's slotted," Carlyle said Monday morning. "But when they leave it, they usually feel better about themselves. They usually feel better that they were able to say what they wanted to say. It clears the air. It gives me the opportunity to tell them how I actually feel without bringing them in the office or scolding them.

"It's just a general thing of where I think they're at and I try to get their feedback on where they think they're at and where the team is at. I think it's very productive."

There was no immediate impact as the first few minutes of their loss to the reigning Stanley Cup champions was full of everything that has plagued the Ducks -- turnovers in their own end, undisciplined play, bad penalties and ineffective penalty killing. It led to Carlyle concluding that he may have to get back to a more dictatorial approach.

Scott Niedermayer said the players have met on their own as well.

"We've done all of the above," Niedermayer said. "All of the above has happened and maybe it needs to continue to happen. Our job is to keep trying to make it work. So we'll continue to try to do those things. We have done it and we'll continue to talk about it."

Marchant conceded that the Ducks don't seem to be working as a unit, at least on the ice.

"If we were on the same page, we'd be doing better than we are," he said. "It just seems like we get maybe three guys at a time on the same page, maybe four. When you get five guys on the same page, it's amazing what can happen.

You either have a really good shift or you score a goal or whatever. It happens.

"Hey, we're not the only team that's been through a situation like this. And I'm sure that everybody in this dressing room at some time in their career, at whatever level it's been, has been in a situation like this."

But the 15-year veteran tried to offer some hope as he sat on a bench in the gloomy dressing room.

"I've been on teams like this before," Marchant said. "It's never easy. It almost seems like there's never any light at the end of the tunnel. But there is. You look at the schedule. We're 19 games in. There is time. There's time to turn this around. We have the people, we have the personnel, we have the talent. We've got the work ethic. We've got the character in this room to do it. It's just a question of everyone doing it.

"Like Randy said, we're regressing. We're taking two steps backward but we haven't been able to get that one step, two steps, three step forward and kind of move in the right direction. We've got to start with one step. Start with a solid game Thursday night and move forward."

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